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Bluelake....bad-bad, but good lesson learned that wasn't serious Watch that aft-CG;
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CE-402C's tend to be easily loaded aft CG. It was about 240lb of coolers (drug test samples I think) and it was pretty much all I had.
The more I have to carry, the less of a problem this is. I definitaly prefer the vertical nets, keeps small loads where you put them.
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Yeah, I know what you mean. My buddy that flew Cessna 404 Titans for a cargo company out of ABQ had somewhat the same problem. An interesting thing....the Chieftain is almost completely the opposite. If you fully load the thing with fuel and have no cargo onboard, the CG of our birds was actually in excess of the
forward limit! There was lead weights we'd fly with if ever in this condition. It was real tough to put a PA-31 on it's tail, unless you loaded a ton of heavy stuff in area D of the cabin [Chieftain has six areas for load, if I remember correctly, A-F....A being the nose compartment, B behind the cockpit, C center of cabin over the wings, D area of cabin from trailing edge to the back side of the airstairs, E small shelf of the aft wall of the cabin....F being the right and left wing lockers.]
When the load crews would bring the bins of cargo out, I'd always have them point the heavy stuff out, and single that out; but manily single out cargo depending on the destination. Depending on fit (and of course, weight limit for the particular Area), most of the heavy stuff would go in the nose locker.....and it'd rarely be full, simply because the heavy stuff tended to be bulkier. If it didn't fit there, I'd throw the bulk heavy stuff in Area B/C. Everything else, I'd pack around that stuff. Wing lockers, I'd save for envelopes and small boxes.
Key item: Since I always had multiple stops, it was a BIG no-no to "miss" dropping off something at a stop; eg- getting to your last stop and finding something "left over" that should've been dropped off previously. You see before where I said that I'd separate cargo on the ramp by destination...that was so I'd get a good mental "picture" of how much and what should be dropped off at each stop. In addition to that, I'd, if at all possible, try to load cargo for the last stop first, and first stop last. That way at an intermediate stop, I wasn't having to dig into the cabin
past cargo I need to keep on board, in order to get to cargo I had to drop off. Further to that, I'd try to keep "markers" in the cabin between the cargo in order to "separate" cargo going to different places.....this helps to avoid the "missing a box" no-no previously mentioned. Some items I used to do this varied. If I had larger boxes, I'd use them as "walls" to separate cargo that was going to different destinations. If it was smaller stuff, then I'd use the cockpit window sun shades crammed inbetween cargo from different destinations in order to act as a wall. Additionally, I'd make a rough aircraft diagram with the various cargo Areas labled with a destination airport ICAO identifier, so I could know at a glance what was where. I'd make this diagram on the backside of my weight and balance sheet, that way I could keep it, since the front copy of the W/B sheet was kept by the station manager, while the carbon copy page was kept in the aircraft, and my diagram made on the back.
Sorry for the ramble...you just got me reminicing about my life 10 years ago.....almost 10 years ago to this very month.
